An official document submitted by the National Oil Corporation as part of its 2026 financial arrangements revealed a widening funding gap in the third chapter, dedicated to development, during the years 2023, 2024, and 2025, despite the annual approved value being fixed at 15.02 billion dinars.
According to the data, actual spending on development projects declined sharply from 12.3 billion dinars in 2023 to 7.18 billion in 2024, and then to 5.13 billion in 2025. This occurred alongside a drop in actual funding to nearly stalled levels, while spending in other areas such as salaries and operations increased.
The document clarified that the liquidated funding in 2023 was 9.24 billion dinars against expenditures of 12.3 billion, recording a deficit of 3.08 billion dinars. In 2024, funding fell to just 0.31 billion dinars against expenditures of 7.18 billion, resulting in a deficit of 6.87 billion dinars. In 2025, funding decreased to 0.20 billion dinars against expenditures of 5.13 billion, recording a deficit of 4.92 billion dinars.
This decline comes at a time when the previous administration had pledged to raise oil production to two million barrels per day, which places development, maintenance, and expansion plans before increasing challenges.
The National Oil Corporation had received an exceptional budget of 58 billion dinars in 2022, allocated to increase production rates, which was fully liquidated without announcing details or data on how it was spent. The document also clarified that the amounts liquidated during 2024 and 2025 were part of what was called a “Payment-by-Proxy Financing Agreement,” meaning that development projects were executed without direct funding, by having the state assume deferred obligations to the executing companies.
This indicates the corporation’s reliance on deferred payment arrangements in the absence of actual funding for the development chapter, which may directly impact plans to increase production in the upcoming period.
